Last month BookBairn and I started reading some much-loved classics for the #2016classicschallenge . There are lots of great versions of c...

Sunday, February 21, 2016

A Colourful Post

Sunday, February 21, 2016
BookBairn Blog
6 Comments

Last month BookBairn and I started reading some much-loved classics for the #2016classicschallenge. There are lots of great versions of classics for babies and toddlers available but, to be honest, I didn't want what I chose to read be dictated by BookBairn's reading options. So I decided to go ahead and read 'The Colour Purple' by Alice Walker, which is also on my reading list from Emma Watson's #oursharedshelf feminist book group on goodreads. I love and hate this book in equal measure and am happy to revisit it as I get so much out of reading it. Highly recommended book (though not for bookbairns).

BookBairn has, instead, been reading 'Alphaprints: Colours' by Priddy Books (and made by Jo Ryan, Sarah Powell and Pip Tinsley). This is a wonderful book introducing a simple rainbow of colours to wee readers. It goes without saying that this book is full of bold colours!

The book consists of seven double page spreads, one for each colour, and each features an animal that is primarily made from raised fingerprints. The fingerprints are slight embossed making them appealing for little hands to touch, feel and explore. The animals are set in a location created in a similar colour but rather than drawn or painted illustrations they are constructed from photographs of everyday objects, which will make for a great eye-spy game when BookBairn masters her sounds! I also like the fact that the text is a simple sentence and not just random words as it creates more of a story for each picture and as wee readers get older you could get them to act out what the animals are doing. For example "Yellow snake slithers in the yellow desert." BookBairn is getting very good at her "ssssss" snake sound and can slither on her tummy with ease so she has already been acting out this page!

Perhaps the best feature of this book is the graduated pages with multi-coloured foil edges (you can see in the pictures along the edge of the book). This has been brilliant for BookBairn! Whilst she has been able to turn pages in most board books for quite a while it is not the easiest for her and she often ends up returning to the same pages over and over (this may be her intention but I doubt it). With this book I have 'caught' her reading every single page as she can access them all easily. I have noticed that the green crocodile page is her favourite - she likes to feel the fingerprint eyes but also enjoys the button teeth.

BookBairn is absolutely loving this book! (As you can see in the above photos). There are many great books out there for introducing colour terms to little ones and this one is particularly good. We also like Ladybird's Baby Touch range's 'Colours' and Usbourne's Baby's Very First Touchy-Feely 'Colours Playbook' both of which we have borrowed from our local library in the past. And I am also keeping an eye out for Little Tiger Press's 'Colours Colours Everywhere' as I like the cut out features and the black backgrounds which add a little extra charm! If you have found any other colour books that you particularly like we would love to hear your recommendations.

Enjoy your colourful reading! Mummy and BookBairn xx

Caught red (or should that be purple?) handed
with Mummy's book!

*DISCLAIMER* I was given 'Alphaprints: Colours' for free for review purposes, however, all words and opinions are my own.

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6 comments:

These are such cute pictures of BookBairn :) If you are looking for books about colour we love Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood. We have a review on Story Snug. There's a board book version too, I just looked for you :)

Welcome to BookBairn! We love reading fabulous books and we enjoy sharing our favourites here on our blog. BookBairn is a huge fan of creative and inspiring picture books, and The Wee Page Turner enjoys a tasty and sturdy board book. We also share some of our baby and toddler lifestyle favourites. Hope you enjoy our recommendations.

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